Compensation

Random quote of the day:


"For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something else."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Compensation," from Essays: First Series




ETA: Thanks to pdlloyd for catching my typo. Oops! That's what I get for hurrying.



( Illustrated version. )

Keep moving forward

There are days when the last thing on earth I want is to sit down and write something. On those days, it makes me positively queasy to contemplate it. So on those days, I give myself permission to blow off my writing time—with the proviso that I must reread what I wrote the day before first.

Now, I am hip to this trick—I've been playing it on myself for years—but I usually go along with it anyway. Because sometimes, after I've done the reread, I still feel nauseated at the thought of writing. On those days, I really do let myself off the hook. I read a book or something during my writing time. Most times, though, when I come to the end of the reread, I've got something to say...and I start writing it down. In this way, I finish a novel.

Today was one of those days, a real black cloud day. I don't know if it's that time of the mon—er, manuscript, or if I really am about to give up writing for good like all the eleventy millionth times before. But I sat down and did my reread. And found I still had something to say. And the black cloud became not quite so black.

As I've said before, ad nauseam perhaps, writing is always the cure—even if it's the reason for the malady.

I keep writing. I keep moving forward.




Venus In Transit

I hit page 300 today. God knows how many there are left.

75,000 / 100,000 (75.0%)